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September Vibes
“You have to write the book that wants to be written.” Madeleine L’Engle After a summer of reading and gardening, September found me planning my first trip in over two years, in hopes of finding inspiration along the way. I put away my work-in-progress and decided to move in a different direction. Am I following a new shiny thing instead of persevering on my half-written manuscript? Was I going the wrong direction in my previous attempt? I guess time will tell. Or maybe it is simply a case of feeling starved for outside stimulation. Either way, with low airline prices fuelling my motivation, I planned a trip to Toronto. It…
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The Summer Shelf: The Start of Me and You
“Ryan Chase was my eighth-grade collage, aspirational and wide-eyed. But Max was the first bite of grilled cheese on a snowy day, the easy fit of my favorite jeans, that one old song that made it onto every playlist. Peanut-butter Girl Scout cookies instead of an ornate cake. Not glamorous or idealized or complicated. Just me.” Emery Lord – The Start of Me and You What do rainy days, smoky days, scorching hot days all have in common? Why, they are all perfect for curling up inside, out of the weather, with a delicious novel. So far this summer, there has been no shortage of reading days! If you read…
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Write Another Book
Waiting is the hardest part of the writing process. When all the revisions are complete and I’m super-happy with the story I have written, I’m sure a publisher is dying to sink their hooks into my brilliance. My agent has put together a comprehensive submissions list and excitement tingles along my spine all the way to my toes when I get the e-mail notifying me that my manuscript has been sent out into the world to find a home. And then, comes the waiting. And…more waiting. At first, you’re counting the days. You think, okay, the editors need time to read the ms. Maybe they need to take it to…
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What’s in a Title?
In my work-in-progress, I seem to be hesitant to give my manuscript even a working title. Why is that? I always thought that the title needed to say something significant about he story. The essence of the plot in a few words. Anne of Green Gables, follows the life of the orphan, Anne, from the time she arrived at Green Gables, for example. I picked Winds of L’Acadie, for my first novel because, through the magic of the porcupine quill box Sarah found at her Grandparent’s house, winds transported her to Nova Scotia at the time when the Acadians were about to be deported from their homes. Not the most…
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Canada Day
In light of the horrific discoveries of what transpired at the Residential Schools, of innocent lives and innocent people who were viciously destroyed we must face that we have a history that does not always make us proud. We must own this and do whatever we can to make real change so that something like this can never happen, will never happen again. Whether or not people feel like celebrating on July 1, the important thing is to remember. Remember and commit to moving forward in a way that means we are truly committed to stamping out the evil roots of racism, in all of its many and varied iterations,…